One of the positives I looked forward from my forced sabbatical was some savings. At the fag end of it, I don't see any in my account! Its as bare as it usually is. I thought at least my credit card bill would come down. Maxed out and overdrawn to the limits! If the lack of savings can be attributed to the assortment of lab tests and high cost medicines, the credit card fiasco is the sole responsibility of Valve. More specifically, Steam.

Steam is a digital game delivery platform. The best in existence. You buy a game, download the Steam client, download the game, and play. Simple enough. What makes this extra special is the fact that suppose you have a PC crash, you can redownload the game free of charge! Also, if you have multiple computers, you can download the games all of them and play! Some games also provide you with the facility of syncing the save games! Totally awesome stuff! The sad part is you will go broke from buying games.

I had never bought a legitimate game (apart from a couple of games I bought for a pittance from Big Bazaar which never worked) in my life before I joined Steam. All started on a fateful day. A typical lazy Sunday. I was going through Reddit and a thread caught my attention. Hearts of Iron II for $3.49. My interest piqued. Redditors were raving about the game. Its a grand strategy/war game were you take control of a real life nation in the Second World War and fictional era after the World War. A very complex game. Seeing the price, I decided to buy it. Sadly, the game was too complex and I didnt have enough time to invest at that point of time. Time went by and I got stuck in TVM with my laptop and nothing to keep me busy except for books. Steam struck once again!

I got enamored by Cricket Revolution and decided to buy it. $9.99. Very tough. Haven't got the heart to sit and learn it. Money not so well spent. Steam struck, yet again!

This time the game was Torchlight. Reddit as usual is the guilty party. I bought the game for $9.99. Never regretted. Its worth much more. Totally awesome Diablo like action-role playing game. I finished the main quests and now doing the sub quests. Steam struck...oh nevermind.

The holiday sales began. Amazing, amazing offers. I ended up buying Audiosurf, Indigo Prophecy, and Rome: Total War. All three together for yet another $9.99. Mercifully, my credit card maxed out. Else I would have gone for the Popcap package, Id Super Pack, Orange Box and Unreal package. Sweet deals though! In a way its good that I didn't get any high end games. My PC has apparently croaked and I can assess the damage only after returning to Bangalore.

A word on the Audiosurf. This is one of the most original and amazing games I have played in my life. Its available at an absolute steal right now. Just $2.50. In this game, you give any song as the input. The game comes packaged with tracks from Valve games like Halflife and Team Fortress 2. The game analyses the song and creates a racing track sort of thing with coloured cubes and all. The track dynamics varies with the music. You have several modes with which you have to accomplish certain things. Its very hard to describe. The game is an absolute treat to play with Motherjane songs. They are very challenging and extremely fun, even more than Lep Zepellin and Eric Clapton! A religious musical experience! Best part is its playable on most computers! Watch the following video with Bring Me to Life by Evanescence.